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The
STOICS and JADE

The Stoics

Much of our
info on this late sixties
Glasgow band that produced one of Britain's greatest blues-rock
vocalists comes
from Tony Demarco who went to school with some of them
and who has a
fair old
pedigree himself - former front man/wailer for The Regent V, Illusion,
Palomino, session bass-player, DJ in Picasso, Sgt.Peppers,
Electric
Garden, and
touring DJ to the Stoics and Beggars Opera and fellow Burns
Howf bar
propper-upper with Francis "Albert" Miller!
Many thanks also to
Gordon McFall for updating membership and guitar info, Alan Dewar for
set list info and Duncan Kennedy for the great pic below.
Mean looking
geezers or
what!

Original line
up was:
Hugh 'Shug' McKenna (vocals);
Adam Smith (keyboards); Jimmy Doris (guitar/vocals from );
John Wynne (bass);
Jack 'Ginger' Casey (drums).
All from the Penilee/Cardonald/Hillington
area of SW Glasgow.
The group secured a
record deal with RCA in late 68 and the single:
Earth, Fire. Air and Water c/w Song of the Sea
came out in early 1969.
A poppy affair with somewhat la-de-da
vocals that didn't set the charts on fire but
Doris' b-side showed songwriting promise.
Shuggy and Adam
left and Frankie Miller joined. Note the top that FM is wearing in the
pic above of the classic line up -
was it later borrowed from his
laundry bag and made famous by Alex Harvey?

We recall The
Stoics playing Ayr Ice
Rink in early 1969 second on the bill to the Move and with 'Jade' as
support. An important talking point on the night among
a couple of
admiring teenage guitarists was whether Jimmy
Doris was playing a real Gibson Les Paul or a copy - you couldn't get
quite close enough to tell.
Well in 2016 Gordon McFall tells
us that it was a Les Paul Junior. Cleared up at last then
Maurice. Next gig we recall
is when
the Stoics played the Bobby Jones in Ayr later that year.
A blistering
cover of
Jeff Beck's 'Let Me Love You Baby' from the 'Truth' LP complete with
note
perfect solo (or so it seemed) was followed by them getting chucked off
and
banned.
Miller explained over the mike that the management (Joe) had
told them
to play 'Pops' but they didn't know any 'Pops' so that was them
finished for
the night.
Clearly recall girls at the gig moaning that you couldn't
dance to
their stuff. We didn't care about that. Just very disappointed not to
hear more
of that guitar and those vocals.
Contributer Alan Dewar who followed
the band
all over Fife and the Lothians remembers great versions of 'The
Stumble', 'Time of
the Season', 'Hold On', 'Looking for a Fox' and 'Evil Woman'.

Doubtless in
response to several such
reactions to their sets the band changed their name to 'Howl' and hit
the
university gig scene in England
where heavier music that 'ye cannae
dance tae'
was more acceptable. Remember seeing such a statement in 'Transplant -
'
Scotland's Teenage Magazine'.
Success did not follow however and in the
early
'70s Howl broke up. Frankie Miller went on to his well documented fame
and then
unfortunately just as well documented very ill health.
Jimmy Doris also
had his
moment of glory writing 'Oh Me Oh My' for Lulu then A&R work
before tragedy
struck him too.
Psychological problems may have contributed to him
being fatally struck by a London bus in the late '80s/early '90s.
Of the
others,
Hugh McKenna worked until late 70s with a Cumbernauld band
"Silverbird".
Jack Casey kept on playing and John Wynne went to
London to roadie for Roy Harper. Anyone got anything to add??

The Stoics did
record some demo tracks for
Chrysalis. Will we ever get to hear them?

R.S. How
did you come to join the
band? J.C. Jimmy Doris, Adam, John
Wynn, Shuggie McKenna and I all lived
in Penilee and decided to form a band.

R.S. Who was Adam and what did he
play? J.C. Adam was the keyboard player.

R.S. Who decided on the name, Stoics? J.C.
Jimmy Doris.

R.S. How did the Stoics sign for RCA? J.C. They won
a competition at a
Battle of the Bands in Glasgow, at the Picasso.

R.S. Where was the Earth, Fire etc
single recorded? Were there anymore RCA recordings?
J.C. It was recorded in
London. No other RCA recordings.

R.S. Why was
Shuggy replaced by Frankie Miller?
J.C. I think because Shuggy had a young
family and was reluctant to tour. He stayed in Glasgow and
managed Jimmy
Murray's band. Frankie Miller
fancied a good band and joined.

R.S.
Any memories of the Move tour in
1968? J.C. "You gotta be kidding, it
was the sixties."

R.S.
Who
chose the live material? J.C. We all did.

R.S.
Were any original numbers played by the Stoics?
J.C. Yes, one called 'Bababalama Bababalee'.

R.S.
Why the name change to Howl? J J.C. It was time
for a change, we changed
it for the Isle of Wight Festival.

R.S.
Was it the same members in Howl or did anyone
leave the band? J.C. Same
members.

R.S.
Why did Howl break up? J.C. The lead guitarist and lead
singer were going different directions.

R.S.
Did the Stoics and/or Howl
record for Chysalis as said? J.C. Yes, Frankie
Miller probably has them. Lots of tapes, nothing on vinyl.

R.S.
Who wrote them? J.C. Mostly written by
Jimmy Doris and Frankie,
I came up with some lyrics.

R.S.
What did you do after Howl? J.C. I
returned to Glasgow for the birth of my son Dean, and later daughter
Verity. I've played casually around Glasgow,
Scotland and Ireland doing gigs and session work with various bands and
line
ups ever since.

We did
see this band support the Move and Stoics at Ayr ice rink in early 1969
but can't really recall that much about them. However, others
certainly can so here's some info mainly provided by Willie McClymont
their
ex-manager.

Latter
line up was - Jim Diamond was on vocals, Jimmy Murray on drums, Pat
Gaffney on
bass, Jim Lacey on
guitar (white Fender Stratocaster,
(then redone in black by Willie himself). Gaffney had replaced Chris
Glenn who
went off to Tear Gas. The band used to use Sergeant
Pepper's for rehearsing during the week and played there some Saturday
nights
too.

Their
set consisted of
heavy rock versions of soul songs like R Dean Taylor's "Gotta
See Jane" and "Private Number" by William Bell along
with
The Lemon pipers "Green Tambourine" and heavy stuff like Elmer
Gantry's "Flames" and Fleur de Lys
"Liar". They moved to London
and played the clubs and colleges as support to mainly blues
bands. The
gig at Ayr Ice Rink mentioned above was the
Scottish end of a UK
tour by The Move. Other dates were somewhere
in Falkirkand the Sunday
night was The Locarno in Sauchiehall Street. An excellent
night.

What
happened after and where are they now: Jimmy Murray
still
thought to live in Glasgow. Pat Gaffney last heard
of living in Andover or Basingstoke.

Jim Lacey joined "The
House of Lords," who
in 1969/ 70 were a big attraction even in England. They made an
album for Famous Music under the name of "Hate" which was actually more
than decent. Jim Lacey
played for "O'Hara's Playboys," a big name showband
of the day. He then joined an English band called "The Alan Bown" with the late Robert
Palmer on vocals. He then joined "The Andy Fraser Band" after
the said Mr Fraser had left "Free". Indeed a talented guitarist but
with the unfortunate knack of joining established bands a few months
before they split up.

Jim Diamond - who passed in 2015 - was only 15 when singing
with Jade, went on to Gully Foyle before joining Alexis Korner. Then he made
an album with Carmine Appice
of Vanilla Fudge, sang
with Bandit and had a #3 with "I Won't Let You Down" fronting
PhD. Most famously he had a number one under his own name in
1985 with "I should have known better". Jim latterly became half of The Blue Shoes.
Its a small world right enough - we remember Jim and his manager
trying to have a quiet drink in lounge bar of the Crabtree in Fulham
one
Saturday night at the height of his success. Word soon went
around as to who he was and the poor bloke had to leave to get away
from pestering autograph hunters. It's not the pub it was Jim
- by the way!